Baku, SANA-The 5th News Agencies World Congress held in parallel with the 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) concluded activities in the Azeri capital of Baku with a final session about “ Protecting the Rights of Journalists” with the participation of the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
During the session, the participants stressed on the need to secure journalists’ free work and protect them during performing their duties.
Responding to a question about a news report on kidnapping a Belarusian journalist by the terrorist organizations in Syria, SANA Director General Ahmad Dawa pointed out that the authorities concerned in Syria provide full protection to all journalists who enter the country legally and help them to accomplish their missions in the places that they want to reach in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Army.
He affirmed that the Syrian Information Ministry agrees on the applications of journalists who want to cover what is happening in Syria, noting that the journalists who choose to enter Syria illegally cannot be protected because they are entering areas where there are terrorist organizations so they bear the responsibility for their lives.
Dawa affirmed that Syrian laws provide full protection for journalists to work freely and objectively in covering the events in it.
He also called on journalists to respect laws and the sovereignty of states and to not violate them under any justification, pointing to the need for including this proposal in the final communiqué of the conference.
He pointed out that the Syrian media staffs have been a target for terrorist organizations since the beginning of the war on Syria because they have been conveying the truth to local and international public opinion, adding that tens of journalists were killed and many others were injured due to terrorist attacks.
Manar/Manal